Scott Morrison twice rebuffed by Jakarta over asylum seeker boats

Judith Ireland and Michael Bachelard

Jakarta has rejected Australian requests to send asylum seekers back to Indonesia on two occasions since the start of Operation Sovereign Borders, the Abbott government has revealed.

In a rare move, given the secrecy surrounding the Coalition's border security regime, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison revealed on Sunday the Coalition had made four requests to Indonesia to accept asylum seekers that Australia had picked up in Indonesia's search and rescue region.

Mr Morrison said that ''for the sake of correcting the public record … two were accepted and two were not''.

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Mr Morrison's statement came after The Jakarta Post reported on Saturday that Agus Barnas, spokesman for the Indonesian co-ordinating minister for Legal, Political and Security Affairs, said his country had declined to receive three out of six Australian requests for transfers since September.

It also comes as one group of asylum seekers Indonesia refused to accept was taken to Christmas Island. Their boat had been at the centre of a mid-ocean standoff since Thursday, when Australian ships had responded to a distress call from the asylum seeker boat.

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Labor leader Bill Shorten was quick to seize on the standoff, pointing out that turn-backs had been touted as a key plank of the Coalition's plan to stop the boats.

Labor MP Andrew Leigh told Fairfax Media on Monday that Indonesia should be treated with respect.''

''They are the fourth largest population size in the world. A very important relationship for Australia being dealt tremendous blows by the towing and throwing, the back and forth that is this government’s asylum seeker policies,'' he said.

''It appears now that the reason that he [Scott Morrison] wants a general to stand next to him, is so he can shield behind that General and refuse to answer questions.''

Mr Morrison said Operation Sovereign Borders procedure was to ''seek the safe return of passengers rescued at sea to Indonesia … where the rescue was conducted within Indonesia's search and rescue region and in close proximity to the Indonesian coast''.

''I have given the Indonesian government an assurance that we would not canvass these requests publicly when and if they are made and I intend to honour that commitment. For the sake of correcting the public record, our post had made four such requests, under Operation Sovereign Borders, two were accepted and two were not.''

Mr Morrison said these incidents were search and rescues, not ''turn-back'' operations, ''although they do achieve the same result''.

On Sunday, Mr Barnas said similar incidents had happened a number of times under both Labor and Liberal governments.

''The boats were fine. In some of those incidents they activated the distress alert and when the Australian ships were nearing them they deliberately broke the engines so that the Australian ships could take them,'' he said.

''If there were incidents where the boats were wrecked and people were in the waters, of course Indonesia would help because it is a humanitarian issue.''